Earlier this week, I heard an interview with Kevin James in which the typically zany actor regarded Here Comes the Boom as a departure from his normal terrain. He spoke of his love for Mixed Martial Arts, and that he wanted to do a film that was “serious” about MMA. If I was the ... Read More »
Perhaps most well-known for its highly successful 1994 adaptation by Irish director John Roberts, Louis Pergaud’s anti-war novel War of the Buttons first came to the screen in its native French four decades earlier. Evidently remaining relevant, the book is this year the subject ... Read More »
What seems like a simple variation on the heist film is a heist a film in one sense and becomes a whole other entity in another sense in the hands of director Choi Dong-hoon and the stellar transnational cast headed by Kim Yoon-seuk. Whatever one wants to call The Thieves in genr... Read More »
When concerning yourself with a ghost movie, one should always wonder which next hot object is ripe for haunting. We’ve seen many frightful poltergeist activities emanate from classic traditional haunted houses, but evil spirits seem to have gradually moved to more obscure medium... Read More »
It’s hard not to wonder just how John Rambo went from the sensitive, misunderstood Vietnam veteran of First Blood to the trigger-happy one-man army of 2008’s Rambo, the differences between the two rendering them characters divided by much more than merely a sizeable time gap. The... Read More »
Here Comes the Boom tells the story of Scott Voss (Kevin James), a high school biology teacher that has lost his stride. Ten years ago he was Teacher of the Year, these days he is less inspired, but he’s not the only one as the school has been on an abysmal decline due to lack of... Read More »
Argo is simultaneously Ben Affleck’s most accomplished directorial feature and his least passionate. The film is incredibly well mounted on every level, from the juggling of an expansive ensemble cast to the melding of two disparate tonal factions of the same narrative to a whopp... Read More »
I don’t necessarily take issue with the premise of Arbitrage – pity-poor billionaire businessman struggles to connive his way out of personal and professional collapse – but rather its lazy execution. Nicholas Jarecki’s film is a white-collar thriller, if you will, a movie about ... Read More »
The one question few found footage movies ever consider, let alone answer, is just who did the finding. Why have these terrible images found their way to a cinema screen rather than into the hands of the relevant authorities; why are they being marketed for entertainment and not ... Read More »
Nothing short of a lengthy discussion with Paul Thomas Anderson could fully explicate the point and purpose of The Master…and honestly, even he might not be able to offer a concise thesis. There are strong symbolic notes and a clear thematic thrust to the film, Anderson’s first s... Read More »
It’s an opening scene Sergio Leone might have shot: far over the land, the camera slowly pans through 360 degrees, examining in exhaustive detail the arid wasteland that constitutes this landscape, the only signs of life upon it the ramshackle train tracks that bisect the world, ... Read More »
Almost thirty years ago, Disney famously (or rather infamously) gave a then little known animator, Tim Burton, his walking papers. Disney executives, unhappy with the time, effort, and more importantly, money spent on Burton's live-action short, Frankenweenie, saw no future in co... Read More »
